VSP facility prepares for Google Glasses

Monday

Mar 31, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 31, 2014 at 6:34 AM

A new eyeglass-assembly lab is poised to make prescription lenses for Google Glass after the wearable-computer product launches this year. The VSPOne facility, which opened in Halethorpe, Md., last month, expects substantial growth from more-conventional sources: customers throughout the Northeast ordering regular eyeglasses. But the lab also has the technology needed to process orders for prescription Glass and expects to do so, said spokesman David Carr.

A new eyeglass-assembly lab is poised to make prescription lenses for Google Glass after the wearable-computer product launches this year.

The VSPOne facility, which opened in Halethorpe, Md., last month, expects substantial growth from more-conventional sources: customers throughout the Northeast ordering regular eyeglasses. But the lab also has the technology needed to process orders for prescription Glass and expects to do so, said spokesman David Carr.

When, exactly, is up in the air. Google Glass — an Internet-connected display screen mounted on an eyeglass frame — is a prototype available only to beta testers. But Google expects to launch it sometime this year.

Google Glass has prompted a lot of debate, from the safety of driving while wearing it to the privacy implications of glasses that can take photos and record video. Then there’s the argument about how much it will matter — whether such products are game-changers or novelties.

Google Glass is pricey for now: $1,500 — plus tax — for testers. Marks hopes the ultimate price is lower so that more people jump on board.

Google teamed up with VSPOne parent VSP Global, which provides vision insurance and other eye-care services, on the rollout of prescription beta testing in January. VSPOne already makes prescription lenses for Glass testers who need them, generally out of its lab in Sacramento, Calif.

VSPOne’s Maryland facility, meanwhile, would be notable whether it makes prescription Glass or not because it’s a new manufacturing facility.

Mike Galiazzo, president of the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland, can think of plenty of plants in the region that closed, but few opening. “It doesn’t happen often,” he said.

He thinks an eyeglass-assembly facility — particularly one with a cutting-edge product in its future — plays to the state’s strengths in the health-care and life-sciences industry.

Like many other high-tech, automated manufacturing operations, VSPOne’s Halethorpe facility has a lean staff. It runs with just four people: three technicians and Brian Snider, the lab manager.

“But within the next one to two years, we expect to have upward of 30 to 40 employees here,” Snider said.

VSPOne is its parent’s lab offshoot, and it’s expanding along with the company’s membership numbers. Halethorpe launched as a new site rather than a relocation.

A big part of the site’s appeal is logistics. Staffers can quickly get eyeglass parts in and ship the finished product out, with a UPS location across the street and I-95 around the corner.

The mass of federal employees in the Baltimore-Washington region is another selling point. The federal government is a VSP client.

The lab turns out about 50 pairs of glasses a day. VSP said that’s far more than it expected, less than two months in, but there’s room to make 200 a day as orders ramp up.

Doctors send the frames that patients pick to the lab, and a VSP processing facility ships over the lenses. Once Halethorpe employees have both in hand, it takes six to eight hours to prepare the lenses and assemble the glasses.

A digital edging machine handles part of the process, carving lenses into the right shape with the appropriate bevel. As trays of lenses queued up for the edger this month, the machine’s robotic arm grabbed one, read the accompanying bar code to determine how to process it and set to work.

“It’s a constant cycle that runs throughout the day,” Snider said. “And the precision and accuracy of this machine is phenomenal.”

He’s speaking as a customer, not just a manager. His new glasses were assembled on-site.

“I probably put them together,” he said.

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